FISA Fight: Crocodile Tears

Via Think Progress, Mukasey turned on the waterworks in a speech this week in San Francisco.

The New York Sun reports that "Mukasey grimaced, swallowed hard, and seemed to tear up as he reflected on the weaknesses in America’s anti-terrorism strategy prior to the 2001 attacks. ‘We got three thousand. ... We’ve got three thousand people who went to work that day and didn’t come home to show for that,’ he said, struggling to maintain his composure."

Once again, it seems we have to remind Mukasey and all the other Republicans who insist on tying retroactive amnesty for phone companies who spied on Americans to September 11 that it wasn't weaknesses in our intelligence that failed us on September 11.

Throughout that summer, we now well know, Tenet, Richard Clarke, and several other officials were running around with their "hair on fire," warning that al-Qaida was about to unleash a monumental attack. On Aug. 6, Bush was given the now-famous President's Daily Brief (by one of Tenet's underlings), warning that this attack might take place "inside the United States." For the previous few years—as Philip Zelikow, the commission's staff director, revealed this morning—the CIA had issued several warnings that terrorists might fly commercial airplanes into buildings or cities.

Well, at least not weaknesses in our intelligence system. Just in the intelligence of the people receiving the information.